Events, pictures, and thoughts from Elder and Sister Lenhard while serving for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Wisconsin, Milwaukee mission...

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Tuesday to Tuesday (July 8-July 15)

SISTER LENHARD'S PICTURES THROUGHOUT POST!

Tuesday ended with
an early night because we are getting old. I already reported on what we did
last week.

On Wednesday,
things began to hop.MOST
IMPORTANT!Amy had a birthday. I can’t
believe that she is an adult, let alone an old adult.HahahahaJust remember, Jon is older than you. From pictures I’ve seen, she had a
great time. We love you oldest daughter.

We went to the gym
early that morning. I’m telling you I’ve been hurting in my knees and my
shoulders for a while now. I’ve never had this problem, and I feel 20 years
older than I am. Consequently, I’ve been taking it easy on the knees and
shoulders when I exercise. I hate walking slow like I have no energy.We were slated to go downtown and visit with
a new member of the Church ((TIM LARSON) who works with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. They take
care of people’s millions when there is just too much money to spend, and the
people want tax breaks. So if I had 40 million, I could keep 12 to live off of
(I think I could almost do that) and give much of the rest to this foundation.
I then tell them (if I want to) how to give that money to charities or I could
just let them decide how to disperse the funds. This goes on forever.Anyway, Elder Lenhard needed to talk with
this member about what resources are available to help the Saints in this area.
This man has a good handle on the resources that are already out there and is
going to help find those that the Church could tap into when people come to the
Bishops for help. Of course, this would have to be approved by the Stake
Presidents, and President Cutler (Mission President) has been using Elder
Lenhard to find out information like that to report back to the Stakes. This
good brother toured us around the facilities where he works, introduced us to
several of his coworkers, and took us to the former Milwaukee Men's Club, now the fancy Milwaukee Club for lunch. It was
funny. Girls, haven’t we all read books about those men and their clubs. There
is a picture of all the men sitting in a room at dining tables (must be 200 of
them) and they are all dressed in old-timey tuxes. Quite dashing if I do say so
myself. It was a beautiful place, and it is so obvious it was meant for just
men. We had to take some back stairs to a restaurant downstairs where we found
the table set with all the proper utensils (ok Beverly, stop laughing. I know
you think this is just proper etiquette, but this old farm girl has a hard time
with stuff like this!).Elder Lenhard
and Brother Larson talked about what was needed and how to attain it. It would be
a great help for the leadership in this area to know there are resources out
there already set up that is meant to help the people in this area, but many of
us aren’t aware of them.

After lunch, we had
to scoot home to pick up some food materials to take to the young girl’s home,
named Denise, (the one getting baptized on July 27) to help her feed the
missionaries. We got home with a few minutes to spare, I grabbed what I needed
and then headed to Sams. We picked up a dessert and some rolls and flew to her
house. When we got there, it was 3:20. The missionaries were coming at 4:00.
She lazily moved around, and I got her working on the spaghetti sauce. As it
turned out, I ended up making the dinner (the poor missionaries) while she
enjoyed their company. It was just funny, and I don’t know why I didn’t see it
coming earlier. We finally got everyone fed by 5:00 (we had one set of
missionaries who were 45 minutes late, and yes, we did wait). Do you know how
soggy spaghetti can get as well as broccoli that is ready on time while we wait
45 minutes past the time to eat? Then we have to reheat everything. My less
than stellar cooking skills just went down the tube. My dear sweet husband
declared it the best spaghetti sauce ever. It was two cans of the nastiest
sauce you can use (and that was one of the things I did not buy). We made it
though and the chocolate cake was at least yummy.

We did not get home
until 8:00. By then, we were exhausted. Good thing the day was over, oh wait! I
had to do a load of laundry. I’m getting more confident in leaving the laundry
and coming back to the apartment while the machine does its work. Sitting and
watching it won’t accomplish anything. There appears to be no concerns about
anything happening to it. At least when we got to bed, we had clean clothes for
the morrow.

Thursday was a
complete madhouse. We started the day by attending a lesson with an
investigator that we had met a couple of weeks ago. We encouraged him to get
into his genealogy, and he has done well. While there, I could show him the
Ancestry site, and we found a couple of censuses to support the information he
had received from relatives he had over for the 4th of July. It was
exciting, and I hope he will take advantage of the genealogy library which is
close to his home.We also pray that the
missionaries will be able to teach him the Gospel.

We had to leave the
appointment early to race across town and help a brother who has had a stroke
get some groceries. We will be doing this every other week or twice a month. He
is such a sweet man, and the stroke has had a devastating effect on him. He is
a shell of his usually bubbly personality. I feel so sorry for him. He is
working hard (and probably too hard) to get back to his old self, and he hates
to be helped. I had to insist on some of the groceries. He is living with
friends at the present time, and they appear to be really nice. He is from
Senagal and was a Muslim. The friends he is staying with are also from Senagal
and are Christians.

From there, we had
to get home to grab materials and lunch for a Temple class we were going to
present to two young men who are going on missions. One is going to Birmingham,
AL and the other to Taiwan. It was fun to do, and after Church on Sunday, we
are going to do two more, then two next week when their schedules work, and
finally, the last one on the 26th.When we left this meeting, we came home, grabbed a bite to eat and
headed to the Pathway program and the genealogy library. It was crazy!We are thankful to be kept busy, but this
driving all over kingdom come and back every day gets tiring.

Last night I went
to sleep in one of the recliners in the living room. I just could not face
sleeping in the bed. I’ve been thinking that the bed is one of the reasons I
hurt so much. When I woke up this morning, for the first time my knees didn’t
hurt, and my shoulders felt better. We have got to find a pillowtop for the
bed.

Friday was a free
day so to speak. We went to the gym and came home to do some clean up stuff. It
was a beautiful day, and we decided to head out to a lighthouse that we have
tickets to visit. I called right before and found out they are only open on
Saturdays and Sundays. We decided to go to a historic (everything in this area
is historic) town called Greendale. On the way, we remembered a botanical
garden that we had wanted to visit, and decided to go there instead. Our GPS
died on us, just like that, died, dead, gone. Do any of you have any
suggestions for another one? We really depended on this one. It is bad to use
the phone as it uses data time, and I have to be the navigator which drives
Elder Lenhard crazy. He knows I have trouble paying attention to it. He doesn’t
want to just listen, he wants to see it, which is a no-no while driving.

The gardens were
absolutely beautiful. For those of you familiar with Callaway, you know how
they had one building with all the odd flowers that could be found. Then, of
course, the whole Callaway experience was one of nature with the azaleas out
big time in the summer. But there weren’t very many blooming flowers all over
the place. These gardens included a small waterfall, flowers spread out through
the woods and landscaped areas. Then there was the rose garden itself. I’ve
never seen so many different colored roses in one place. It was gorgeous. There
was a wedding taking place later in the afternoon, and I could see that the
area of the rose garden was perfect. By the time we got to the rose garden, the
clouds had shown up and it was sprinkling. I prayed that the bride and groom
would have clear weather for their wedding. We had to get home and get some
things done around the house. When we checked out, we got to talk with a woman
about genealogy and how we felt about the importance of families. Elder Lenhard
did most of the talking. He manages to talk to everyone we meet about the
Church in some way. I’m more wait and see if they give me an opening before I
really start, but my husband can manage to get any conversation to the Gospel.

The next day
(Saturday) we were off early in the morning for a Mexican Fiesta genealogy
training. We will be working this festival in August, and the woman who directs
it wants us all trained. We both went thinking it would probably be a waste of
our time, but we were humbled. We learned so much, not just on the genealogy
side, but of the history of Mexico. There were only 8-9 of us there, and we met
in the Mexican Cultural Center. It was an old building out in the back of the
beyond. They want to get another building that will really give them an
opportunity to expand their displays and make it possible for visitors to see
what they have to offer. There were some beautiful dresses there that I would
have loved to have walked off with, but I realized that I wouldn’t look nearly
as good in them as the dummies on which they hung.

We didn’t leave
that meeting until almost 1:00PM. It was off to Sam’s Club where we both got our
health screening. I love to go to these places and get our blood sugars, BMI,
and cholesterol checked. Our sugars were fantastic, our BMIs on the cusp, and
while Elder Lenhard has great cholesterol, mine is still high. UGH!Why can’t mine go down? I will not go on the
cholesterol medicine, but I struggle with it. While at Sam’s, I picked up some
stuff to feed the missionaries on Tuesday. We also got a pillow top for the
bed. I just couldn’t take another night without something to relieve the
hardness we have been sleeping on.

We had to get home
to prepare lessons for Sunday. The missionaries are teaching the Gospel
Principles class, and we had the Temple Prep class to prepare. I took Lesson 2
of the Temple prep lessons and Elder Lenhard the third one. We were on the
phone getting in touch with investigators we are working with and encouraging
them to come to Church. It looked like we were going to get three there. We
called the Quiles family who had gone to the Temple that day, and she was so
excited. We will keep in touch with them. The young girl in their family will
be baptized at the end of the month, and we hope to be able to go. That is the
same time as a baptism in our Branch, so I hope we can make it.

On Sunday, I got up
to the best I’ve felt in waking for a while. I could actually get out of the
bed without my knees feeling as old as they are. Getting old is not for sissies.
Like I said before, I think 25, my body tells me the right age.I am grateful for the good health we enjoy.
We may creak and squeak, but we are able to get up and move around relatively
easy. I’m glad we came out on this mission now. I hope we can go more than
once, but it helps if you feel good.

We had to get out
of the house early because we had to pick up Denise who is going to be baptized
later in the month, and then we had to go pick up her baby from the foster home
in which he lives. She lost him to the system because of her involvement in
drugs, but she is working to get him back. She had to go to Court Monday to
report to the Judge and let him see how she is doing.After Church, someone else had to take her
home because we had to stay and teach our lessons. These young men who are
going out, Kohl and Xavier, are really special. Xavier leaves the first of
September for the MTC. He will be going to Birmingham. We told him to look up
Bear Bryant (can you believe he had never heard of him – and don’t any of you
say “Who is that?” You should know.) He comes from a large black family (and I
mean large in the sense of his grandparents joined, then their children, and
many of their children) who are members of the Church. Back in the 90s, they
were active and then they just went inactive. When the grandmother died,
several of the grandchildren spoke at the funeral. We didn’t have any idea
about their background, but we could tell they were members of the Church. We
have had contact with several, and they know they need to come back, but the
world has them caught up. Xavier is the first to go on a mission, and they are
very encouraging. One young man who spoke at the funeral told him that he made
a mistake by not going on a mission when he had the chance. He was ready to do
it, and then got scared. There are some really good people in that family, and
they are not as close as they used to be. They have expressed the feelings that
they want to pull the family together again, and maybe Xavier will be the string
that pulls them.

Monday started out
early because we had a walking tour scheduled with two of the sister
missionaries for downtown Milwaukee. We had to be there by 9:45AM which meant we
had to leave by 9:00. The sisters were a little late, and we began to worry
that we wouldn’t make it, but we did. We met in the Grand Avenue Mall downtown
which was built in the early 1900s. It had been built over a hotel where
General Douglas McArthur lived before he became the great general. He called
Milwaukee his home, and when it came time to go off to a military academy, he
came back to establish his residency (after having lived elsewhere for several
years) so he could be nominated for appointment to an academy. In the meantime,
the hotel had been torn down, and this building had been erected. It was quite
a show place, and we only got to see a bit of it. Liberace played downstairs
(this was his home also) in an entertainment area. Unlike most malls, this one
had lots of wood and has been well preserved. They are remodeling it to include
a theater, and I don’t think it is a movie theater.

A little bitty
older woman met up with us (there were 16 gathered for the tour), and she had a
tiny voice. I think we all recognized that we wouldn’t be able to hear her very
well. While we were in buildings, it was ok; however, outside battling with all
the noise from the cars and buses on the street, it was a struggle. The others
in the group were fantastic. We introduced ourselves and explained that we were
on a mission for the Church.Some had
actually come up to us earlier after having seen our badges from a distance and
thought we were the tour guides. While walking,
several came up to us to ask us more, and some were actually from this area and
had never gone downtown. However, they had a wealth of information they were
willing to share when we couldn’t hear the guide.

We walked 10
blocks, stopping on the way to hear the history of the area. We saw some really
neat places I’m not sure we’d have seen otherwise. Now, we want to go walk on
the riverwalk and visit some of these places in more depth. There is a Pfister
Hotel here that someone in the Ward at Layton had told us to visit. It was
gorgeous. We didn’t get to see much, but we checked on the room rate, and we
were told it is about $200/night. When we left, one of the younger couples in
the group told us they were staying there and had bid on Priceline $65 and
gotten it. They weren’t staying in the older section of the hotel, but the more
modern one. It has a view of the Michigan Lake, and they highly recommended
staying there. It depends on what is happening in town if they have rooms to
let at a price we can afford.

There is an old
Chamber of Commerce building that is huge. It is not used as a Chamber building
anymore, but at one time it served as a sort of stock exchange (I think) for
those who were involved in the grain business. This was the place to come to
bring the grain to the mill and then send it out across the country. At this
time, Milwaukee was known as the Breadbasket of the country. However, some kind
of bug infested the area and destroyed the grains grown here and then anything
that was sent here. It was at this point (in the middle of the 20th
century) that the farmers turned to cattle and began the production of milk and
milk products (cheese).

The reason I
mentioned this place is that you would have to see it to appreciate it. They
have a ballroom that is now used for weddings and that sort of thing. It is
humongous. The walls are decorated with art you would see in an art gallery. I
believe it was the German influence here. There are stained glass windows (as
are prevalent in most of these old buildings). Like all the other buildings we
have seen, there is a huge bar presence. They were certainly drinkers, and it
appears to still have a significant influence here. There is actually only one
beer company still here (it used to be the beer capital of the world). I
believe someone told us that they are on the brink of having one of the major
beer companies move back to Milwaukee. Many of the homes and beautiful
buildings were built by the beer barons. We want to go tour the Pabst home
eventually. It is crazy big (20,000 sq. ft) and again the architecture is
beautiful. Downtown we got a couple of pictures showing the influence of the
French style of building. Hope we got a good one to include here.

There are some
really rich people in this area who own many of the historic buildings
downtown. A lot of renovation has gone on and is continuing to preserve the rich
heritage they have. There is another area of downtown that we will have to tour
by ourselves I guess (unless we can get a tour on a Saturday which is the only
day they have this particular one). It is called the Third Ward. I think it was
an area settled by the Irish, but I’m not sure. If we can’t get a tour, we are
going by ourselves. It has a wealth of neat looking shops that just beg to be
explored.

Today, Tuesday, we
have to feed the missionaries. We got a call from Sister Cutler today telling
us that the Book of Mormon play was coming to Appleton, WI, in September. They
want us to find out what the missionaries have done in an area where the play
came through. This is right up Elder Lenhard’s alley. He loves to find out
stuff like this.

I have to feed the
Elders later today. I had planned on feeding them after the District meeting
today, but alas, I did not know that tomorrow is transfers so no District
meeting. So now, I had to make a decision on where to feed them. Since we are
not located in the City Branch boundaries, only one set of missionaries could
come to our apartment (the Hmong missionaries can go anywhere to teach).We had decided that it is way too expensive
to take four missionaries out to eat, so I bought pizzas, had a fruit salad and
green salad, and got brownies. I have nowhere to cook them. I’m going to cook
them here, wrap them up, and hurry to the City Branch building where I’ll put
them into the oven if time permits to warm them up or hopefully, just to keep
warm, while the guys set up a table and get other stuff out. I’m anticipating
the worse, so no telling what will happen.

3 comments:

Love hearing about all of your adventures...been talking to Anden and Mckay about the three of us visiting at some point. So excited to explore that part of the country. Oh, and to see you both, of course! :)

About Us

Elder Craig and Sister Linda Lenhard are most recently from Layton, Utah, and are currently serving for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as member support missionaries in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Craig was born in Flagstaff, Arizona and grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, and Linda comes from the back hills of Virginia. The Lenhards were converted to the church soon after their marriage and have been faithful members ever since. They lived and raised their five children in Columbus, GA for 25+ years before relocating to Utah to prepare for their mission. They have been serving since April 14, 2014, and are excited to share their testimonies and knowledge of the gospel to the people of Wisconsin!